Improvement in stoves



H. M. SMITH.

Stoves.

Patented Oct. 13,1874.

Fig.2

,(DDOQID QINVENITOR I/MQ/JM & WITNESSES THE GRAPHIC ORPHOTO'LITHJSJu 4| PARK PLACE, KY

UNITED STATES HOBATIO M. SMITH, OF CHICAGO, ILL.,

PATENT orrron ASSIGNOR', BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,

()F ONEHALF HIS RIGHT TO FRANKLIN LESTER, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN STOVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,991, dated October 13, 1874; application filed February 23. 1874.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HORATIO M. SMITH, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new, useful, and Improved Apparatus for Consuming the Products of Combustion, and rendering the combustion more complete, of which invention the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of an apparatus embodying my invention; Fig. 2, a vertical central section-of the same, and Fig. 3 a like representation of a modification in the construction.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts.

In the drawing, A represents a heatingstove. B is the fire-pot, and O the grate. D is a door through which the fuel may be supplied to the fire. The fuel may also be supplied through the lid or removable cap I). E is a damper arranged above the fire-pot. I deem it preferable to arrange a damper, E, upon each side of the stove, and to perforate them, as shown, so as to allow the air to enter. G is a door opening into the ash-pit. H is the pipe. This pipe enters the ash-pit, as shown, so as to create a direct downward draft through the firepot. It also enters the chamber above the fire-pot so that a direct upward draft may be created through the latter. 6 e are dampers for the purpose of directing the draft either upward or downward through the firepot. I is the base of the stove or the bottom of the ash-pit.

I find it difficult, in using a downward draft, to prevent the grate from being injured by the intense heat thus impinged upon it. This difficulty may be overcome to some extent by arranging the grate a considerable distance above the base, so as to form a comparatively deep ash-pit, as shown in Fig. 2. I have made provision, however, to avoid the use of a grate, and the means I employ for this purpose are shown in Fig. 3.

When the grate O is not employed, I arrange in its place a bottomless firepot extending downward nearly to the base or bottom of the ash-pit, as shown, and when no grate is used the central part of the ash-pit should be protected by fire-brick or other similar material, as represented at l. The lower end of this low fire-pot is arranged a little way above the part I, as shown, and the upper face of the part I is smooth and fiat. By this means the draft is allowed to pass between the part I and the lower edges of the low fire-pot, and the ashes and cinders remain longer in contact with the hottest currents than they would if the part I were inclined downward and outward from the central part of its upper face, and are thus more thoroughly consumed. The upper face of part I may be made slightly concave for the purpose of retaining the ashes and cinders still longer on the said part than a flat surface would. By making the upper surface of the part I smooth, clinker is not liable to become attached thereto. The lower end of the low fire-pot, by being suspended above the part I, and the upper surface of the latter, by being smooth, retards the destruction or burning out of these parts.

In order to start combustion, the dampers may be arranged to create either an upward or a downward draft through the fire-pot. When an upward draft is produced, the fire may be built in the usual manner, and the draft reversed, and fuel added, when the fire is sufficiently started. When the fire is started with a downward draft, the fire-pit should first be filled with fuel, the kindling being arranged on the fuel, and ignited. Fuel may then be added from time to time to continue combustion. The air, or those elements therein which are essential to combustion, is thus mingled with the smoke and other gases which escape 'unconsumed from the heated but unignited or partially ig nited fuel which is added to the fire after combustion is fully established, and these mingled elements are thus conducted to the ignited fuel, and consumed during their passage through it, or below it on mingling with the air there I found.

In the constructionof apparatus herein shown and described, a downward draft, by drawing the flames and heated currents directly through V the interstice existing between the particles of ignited fuel into or toward the ash-pit, produces a more thorough combustion of the cinders and ashes in ash-pit than when the draft is upward. I

I am aware that combustion has sometimes been started in stoves having an upward draft through the fire-pot by kindling a fire on the fuel remaining therein after a previous fire has gone out, yet, in such instance, so far as I am aware, the draft has been continued in such a direction as to proceed from the ignited fuel through that afterward added to sustain combustion. I am also aware that a conical and corrugated base has heretofore been employed to support the fuel in a stove wherein provision is made for a downward draft through the ignited coal, and that a flue has been arranged to pass downward through the central part of the firepit, provision being made for a downward draft through the said fine, such devices being shown and described in Letters Patent No. 76,455, issued to Elihu Hosford for improvement in coal-stoves, dated April 7 ,1868, and in Letters Patent N 0. 95,636, issued to Robert Batting for improvement in base-burning stoves, dated October 12, 1869, respectively, but I here make no claim thereto.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The grateless and bottomless fire-pot, in combination with the base I having a smooth upper surface, and arranged a short distance below the fire-pot, both operating together inv a base-heatin g stove, in connection with dam pers and flues for conducting a downward draft or blast upon and through the fuel, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

HORA'IIO M. SMITH.

Witnesses:

F. F. WARNER, N. G. GRIDLEY. 

